


One Day

by themadmage



Series: themadmage's Harry Potter one-shots and standalones [8]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Christmas Presents, Dimension Travel, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, M/M, Post-War, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Toddler Teddy Lupin, brief mentions of magical addiction and past miscarriage due to injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-18
Updated: 2019-12-18
Packaged: 2021-02-27 02:14:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21845392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themadmage/pseuds/themadmage
Summary: As a Christmas gift, Hermione offers Harry one day with family.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Harry Potter, James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Series: themadmage's Harry Potter one-shots and standalones [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1061978
Comments: 12
Kudos: 129
Collections: Harmony Advent Collection 2019





	One Day

Hermione bit her lip and peeked around the doorway, where Harry was sitting on the lounge sofa. It was Christmas Eve, and she was about to present her unconventional gift to her fiance. If she’d misread the situation and Harry didn’t like it, then her only backup (purchased earlier this evening in a panic at the Leaky Cauldrn - the only place still open) was a bottle of Ogden’s. 

Harry didn’t drink firewhiskey, so no pressure.

Hermione crept into the room on tiptoes, as if sneaking up on Harry would soften the blow if this were a mistake. Luckily, Harry hadn’t cursed someone who surprised him since shortly after he left the aurors to coach kids’ quidditch. She sat gingerly next to him and he looked away from the fireplace to smile at her, wrapping his left arm around Hermione’s shoulders. She cuddled into his side automatically, and relaxed. Even if Harry didn’t like her gift, he’d be gracious about it. He’d probably laugh about it if she presented him with the bottle of liquor tomorrow. 

“Harry?”

He turned to face her more fully, looking slightly alarmed at Hermione’s hesitant tone. “What is it, Mi?”

“I just wanted to talk about tomorrow.” She paused, and took a breath. “What if we could spend it with family?”

Harry’s eyes widened briefly, followed by a furrowed brow. “I don’t understand,” he admitted.

Silently, Hermione cursed her sudden attack of nerves. Of course that wouldn’t make sense. Her parents were still in Australia, utterly convinced they were the childless Monica and Wendell Wilkins. The memory modification she’d done had turned out to be irreversible due to her inexperience and the breadth of the spellwork. They’d been growing apart from the Weasleys ever since they started dating, and the family had all but cut them off when Harry had given her a ring over the summer and confirmed that they’d never marry into the clan. _His_ family didn’t even rate a mention - at least as far as he was aware. 

“Hermione?” Harry asked, tearing her from her thoughts. 

“I meant- yours. Your family. _Not_ the Dursleys,” she added at his poorly-concealed look of horror. “Your parents. What if we could spend the day with your parents?”

Harry’s mouth dropped open. It would have been comical in another situation. “My parents- they’re gone, Hermione. I threw away the resurrection stone, and going back in time twenty years- it’s not possible.”

It _was_ possible, actually. Hermione had considered it when the team in the Department of Mysteries that she was a part of had developed the ritual. She’d discarded the idea because it would be too tempting to Harry to try to change history, which had had disastrous consequences in testing. “No spell can reawaken the dead,” she agreed without addressing the second statement Harry had made. “But there are other worlds. Places where they never died. I recently learned of a ritual that I could cast to bring us to an alternate dimension within certain parameters - in this case, one where James and Lily Potter are alive and the country is not at war - on a temporary basis. I can give you one day.”

Harry took a deep breath, a thoughtful look crossing his face. There was a time when he would have jumped on this opportunity without a thought, and if that were still the case then she’d never have brought this idea forward. At this point in his life, Hermione was confident that Harry would consider the consequences of her offer, but still have interest. 

“What are the risks?” Harry asked after several moments. He caught her left hand in his right, twirling her engagement ring gently on her finger. “I wouldn’t… Being able to meet my parents would be wonderful, but if it would risk the life I’ve built, then it wouldn’t be worth it. And what about Teddy?”

Harry’s two-year-old godson had come to stay with Harry and Hermione just the previous day. He still lived with Andromeda more often than not, but he visited often as she didn’t have the energy to keep up with a toddler full time. This year, she had been invited to spend Christmas with her sister. 

“I can cast the ritual and allow us, including Teddy, to make the trip for one day, but I’ll be severely magically exhausted. I can’t teach you the ritual and allow you to assist because of my vows to the DoM. With long-term or repeated use the ritual can become addictive, but a single trip will be safe. We’d also forget one day of our lives here in our own world. It must be a day that every traveler shared, so we’d be losing one day that we’ve spent with Teddy since the end of the war, but it doesn’t have to be a special day in any way.”

“Would we be able to tell them who we were? It would be safe?”

“Of course. I wouldn’t offer you a limited time with your parents and then ask you to lie to them. The two worlds will have diverged long ago - at least in 1981 - and the ritual is obscure. I’ll perform it just the once, and I can’t teach it to anyone, so the chances that anything could be temporally disturbed by our honest presence are infinitesimally low.”

“So, we’d essentially trade one mundane day in our recent past for a day in another world.” Harry visibly turned that information over in his mind. “I’m not thrilled that you’d be exhausted, but I trust you to make that choice for yourself. You’d really do this for me?”

Hermione smiled, seeing the decision in his eyes. “There is very little in this world that I wouldn’t do for you, Harry Potter.”

* * *

Violet magic swirled, and three travelers appeared in the snow-covered garden of the Godric’s Hollow cottage that Hermione and Harry had visited just once in their own world. Hermione leaned heavily on Harry’s shoulder, and a bleary-eyed Teddy was propped on his hip. They waited only a few moments before the back door opened. The first two people who emerged were ones that Harry had seen only as reflections, afterimages, or ghosts. His parents were followed by two faces Harry had never expected to see again - Remus Lupin and Sirius Black. Hermione could see the moment when the people they'd come to see recognized their own features in Harry, as they stopped dead in their tracks and stared.

Harry cleared his throat. "Er- hi." Hermione could tell he was speaking around a sizable lump. "I'm... Harry. I'm Harry James Potter." He sounded much more confident the second time, and Hermione was glad. Their time was limited - it wouldn't do to spend it overwhelmed. "This is my fiance, Hermione Jean Granger, who's exhausted from powering the ritual to bring us here, and this little guy," Harry bounced Teddy on his hip, who had hidden his face in his godfather's neck, "is my godson, Teddy Lupin."

Sirius was the first to react to the strangers. "Well, hello! Do we need to be introducing ourselves?"

Harry and Hermione both shook their heads, and Harry bounced the toddler on his hip again until the little boy looked up. "Teddy, these people are Lily, James, Sirius, and Remus," he said as he indicated each person. Teddy's hair, which had previously been mimicking Harry's, turned flame-red the moment he laid eyes on Lily, to the surprise of each person who was unfamiliar with him. Remus, in particular, seemed to be eyeing the boy carefully. "He probably won't do anything with that information," Harry admitted. "He's only two. Seems right to tell him, though."

"You're here from-" Lily began.

Hermione finished for her. "Another dimension. In our world, well, the details aren't a holiday-friendly conversation, but Harry was orphaned as a baby and I wanted to give him a chance to meet his parents properly."

"Another world," Lily said faintly, unable to take her eyes off of Harry. 

"A _different_ world," Sirius crowed. "Moony made a baby! With - if I'm not horribly mistaken - my little cousin?"

"Tonks," Harry said with a nod, his eyes flicking to the two men's joined hands. "I don't know if the two of you were ever together in our world. You never told me."

Remus cleared his throat. "Based on the look on your face, I'd say it's too late to find out?"

"Well!" James spoke for the first time, clapping his hands together and rubbing them eagerly. "There's no use dwelling on the fates of other versions of us, while we're here and alive and well. The three of you ought to come in, and you can meet our girls. We were just about to have breakfast."

In the kitchen, seven became nine as two girls bounded down the stairs in their pajamas, freezing momentarily at the sight of the strangers. Hermione bit her lip to avoid laughing - she hadn't considered how awkward the introduction phase might be. 

"Introduce yourselves, girls," Lily admonished gently.

"Hi," the first said. She was the feminine version of Harry, with green eyes, a thin face, and long, black hair. "I'm Primrose. People call me Prim."

"And I'm Ivy," the second added. The younger daughter had gotten both her hair and eyes from their father, but Lily's genes were still visible in the rounder shape of her face and her shorter nose. 

"This is Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Teddy Lupin. They traveled here from another dimension to meet Harry's family," James told his daughters. "I forgot to ask - how long are you staying?"

"Just one day," Harry said a bit roughly. "How old are the two of you?"

"Fifteen," Ivy said at the same time Prim replied, "I'll be eighteen next month."

"You're twenty, right?" Lily asked Harry urgently. "You'll be twenty-one in the summer."

Harry nodded. "The thirty-first of July."

"I miscarried my first child," Lily admitted softly. Hermione could tell by the tone of her voice that thinking of it still caused her some pain, twenty years later, but that it was a mostly-healed wound. "I didn't even know yet, and I was struck by a curse in a battle. I suppose that's why we don't have a son in this world."

It was also why they survived the war, but Hermione didn't say anything about the prophecy that had caused so much pain in their own world. It was Christmas, and they weren't here to borrow each others' struggles or torture themselves with what-ifs. 

"What do the two of you do?" Remus asked, clearly looking to move the conversation along to happier topics. Everyone looked grateful. "And when did you become engaged?"

Harry smiled warmly at Hermione. "I asked her to marry me in June. We haven't set a date yet - the second half of the year was hectic - but we're happy. I started coaching for the Under Ten Quidditch League. Before that I was an Auror, but it was too stressful."

"I'm a researcher for the DoM," Hermione added. "And very glad that Harry chose a less dangerous career _now_ , rather than later when I nagged him into it."

"You don't nag," Harry said softly. "You're just looking out for me, like you always have."

"Well, I understand that perfectly," Lily told Hermione as she passed her a tray of pastries. Her voice was somewhat stiff, but she was the picture of politeness. "James is the Head Auror. He's passionate about the work, so I wouldn't try to convince him to leave it, but I dream of a day when he's promoted high enough up the ladder that he's in an office instead of doing fieldwork. I'm an enchantress; I create custom-charmed items for people."

"I have a curse-breaking apprenticeship lined up for after my NEWTs," Prim bragged. 

"That's excellent," Hermione praised her warmly. Harry gave her a smile and nodded from where he was trying to feed Teddy on his lap. "Do you have any idea what you'd like to do, Ivy?"

"I'm considering Healing," the younger girl told her after swallowing a bite of toast, "but I'm only a fourth year, so I might change my mind. Madame Pomfrey said that if I'm still interested after my OWLs she'll give me some basic lessons to see if I have an aptitude for it."

"Padfoot and Moony co-own a bookstore-slash-joke shop hybrid in Hogsmeade," James added off-handedly. 

"That's..." Hermione trailed off.

"Fitting," Harry decided with a grin, before Teddy demanded his attention again. 

By the end of breakfast, the travelers felt as though they'd been accepted into the family. Lily had given Hermione a cool vibe at first, but gradually the woman who could have been her mother-in-law warmed to her. It was a relief. They'd be leaving after today, and Harry surely wouldn't let a woman he barely knew sour him to his relationship with her, even if that woman was his mother, but having Lily Potter's approval felt good. 

The sitting room was decorated liberally with holly and ivy, and a large evergreen tree dominated one corner. Gifts were piled under the tree, spilling out in every direction, and fairies flitted from branch to branch. Icicles under stasis charms hung from the mantle, not melting despite the fire that roared below them. Each person took a seat in an armchair, on the sofa, or on the floor, and a cozy feeling filled the room. 

Graciously, Remus allowed Hermione his chair, recalling her exhaustion. She ran her mind over the moon cycle to ensure he wasn't likely to be exhausted himself before accepting, and handed her old beaded bag to Harry. "If you could summon some things for me? There should be two gifts for Teddy, so he doesn't feel left out, one of his drink cups if he gets thirsty, and a gift for your family."

Harry chuckled, and summoned the named items with a self-depreciating grin. "When was the last time I told you I'd be lost without you, Mi?"

"Last Tuesday," Hermione said with a smile.

"That's an impressive Undetectable Extension charm," Lily told her. "Did you do it yourself?"

"Thank you. I did it when we were seventeen. I couldn't manage the organizational aspects of the charm to turn it into a proper dimensional store, though. Everything I put into it just sort of... rattles around inside, and has to be summoned out. I keep meaning to study the spells and fix it, but time always gets away from me."

"Why don't you let me add the charms today? We don't have gifts for you, so this can be yours."

"That would be lovely," Hermione said with a smile, just as one of Prim's gifts exploded and turned her face Gryffindor maroon and gold. James cackled in the background, while his daughter just looked resigned.

"Primrose sorted into Ravenclaw," Lily confided to Hermione and Harry. "James started out inconsolable, but has since decided to blame me and Remus - for being too bookish to be proper Gryffindors, you see - and to base his entire joke campaign off of it. My Christmas gift to the Marauders every year is a free pass on pranking. I won't chastise them or make them undo their spells, so long as no one is hurt. So watch your backs."

The next gift that Primrose opened turned out to be dragonhide armor - for her cursebreaking adventures - and much better received. Each person native to this dimension received a mixture of pranks and smaller gifts, with one larger gift for each person. Teddy unwrapped a set of color-changing blocks, and a toy broomstick. James was pleased to receive the nice bottle of Ogden's that Hermione had purchased, and she was glad that no one needed to know the real circumstances of the purchase. 

During the noon meal, all of the flatware stood on end and walked away, crying out about going on strike. It warmed Hermione's heart to see Harry laughing along with his father, Sirius, and Remus, even as she took Teddy off his lap to prevent the toddler from being jostled around or falling. Lily helpfully cast a charm which created a highchair, and Hermione begged to be taught. Despite living with Harry, she hadn't yet looked into magical options for childcare for when Teddy came to visit. Clearly that had been a mistake. 

The day passed all-too-quickly, filled with love and good cheer. It was nearing midnight when Hermione felt the pull of the ritual's magic. She made eye contact with Harry, and knew he'd felt it too. Their portal home was opening, and it would be easier for everyone if they went through it prepared instead of being sucked through when time ran out. 

Their goodbyes were long, as none of them really wanted to leave. Hermione busied herself ensuring that all of Teddy's things were in her newly-improved bag and hoisting the sleeping child into her arms. Harry deserved a few private moments with his parents. As much as she would be a part of the family he built, this was different. All six of the people they'd visited stood in the garden and waved to them as they stepped into the purple swirl, and were whisked away home.

* * *

"Thank you, Hermione," Harry told her once they'd put Teddy to bed properly. 

She smiled. "You're welcome, Harry."

He grabbed her arm, and pulled her gently to the bedroom. "No, really, _thank you_. Saying goodbye to all of them was hard, but I feel so at peace now, having experienced that. I don't think I realized just how badly I wanted to really understand where I came from. The gift you've given me today- nothing could compare."

"And to think - all you got me was the latest set of volumes on experimental potions," Hermione joked. In truth, she'd loved the books, and Harry knew it. They were advance copies, so she'd be the envy of her coworkers. 

Harry pulled her in for a kiss, sweet and chaste but full of a deep love. "You've set the bar high, but I've got the rest of our lives to find the perfect gift for you."


End file.
